I had not gone to a buffet since before covid and was really in the mood for Chinese. The dishes were your typical Chinese and a few American items. It was good not the best but not the worse. Service was fine and the decor was your typical buffet.

Tremendous value for just under $20; some of the Asian ladies there are really nice, others seem like they've encountered had a lot of trouble. Luckily, I asked nicely about a few select items, & they helped me out. Just take 3-4 $1s with you & reward good service across the host & plate clearers. It's an interesting location between some of the few Walmarts/Sams in the same shopping plaza where there plenty of options to burn off them grunt-grunt oink-oink nuevo & viejo cerdo calories. Luckily it's peace & quiet for the most part & none of that bizarre & sappy mariachi music. But let me tell you want is amazing about this place, granted they just have to go dine themselves at Royal Schaumburg/Downers Grove, Elgin Bufett, & China House in De Kalb, so they can compare & contrast & enhance & improve further or just see my other reviews & pix. It's the prepared seafood - large pieces of fish, oysters/sauce with rice, & sour bamboo/mushroom soup, plus the calamari, crawfish, & crab/shrimp 's ok; I didn't even have to worry about the fresh hibachi (probably too oily & overcooked), other waddle carbs, or non-seafood gristle items, or even jello dessert, though picking at it when I'm super hungry wasn't necessarily terrible. Sorry I didn't have pictures, yet; on weekends when it's crowded, it gets cramped & messy, but I doubt it's filthy & grimy, much easier on weekdays to relax except this one middle eastern couple decided to have a loud conversation on their speakerphone in arabic & I couldn't figure out how to diffuse the situation so they got the point, but what are you going to do? I haven't figured out others' bad reviews, I'll have to check, but if one asks nicely & are reasonable, they seem like they care to do a decent job. I think sometimes the exasperation in tone may be related to culture difference, I mean what are you going to do when 2 in 3 people are hispanic, but I digress.

This is by far one of Northlake's little gems. I've read plenty of reviews and I had to check it out for myself and let me tell you I enjoyed my meal I was still full almost 2.5 hours later. I tried everything on the menu and even the hibachi. The price for dinner is affordable and has its perks. I am a very picky eater so I took my time , trying out each item. The only drawback that I could see was the lack of passion from staff when it came to changing the trays. Items like the Mac and cheese , teriyaki chicken on a stick , and fried fish portions all looked a little bleak. The only negatives I have for this place were the portions were made not according to amount of diners thus having a lot of colder or non eatable items. The bathroom faucet fell out when I washing my hands. Overall I appreciate the service and welcoming atmosphere of the restaurant and hope it can only improve. To management: my only suggestion would be to help your cooks to make smaller portions to keep food cost low. It may require them to cook more often if business picks up but they can get more bonuses by saving on food waste. ENJOY!!!!!!!